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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



ZeST^-^ 



THE WORK 



OF 



PREACHING CHRIST. 



BY 



CHARLES PETTIT McILVAINE, D.D.,D.C.L. 



<\ 




/ 

BOSTON : 

GOSPEL BOOK AND TRACT DEPOSITORY, 

2 Hamilton Place. 

1871. 






^Vf^ 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 
1870, by the 

Gospel Book and Tract Depositoky, 

in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Wash- 
in «:ton. 




THE 

WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 



o>S^o 



To any Young Man entering the Christian 
Ministry. 

My dear Brother in Christ: 

You have been pursuing an education of mind 
and heart, preparatory to the office of a Minis- 
ter of the Gospel. You are now upon the thresh- 
old of that sacred work. How far your minis- 
try will be that of a faithful " steward of the 
mysteries of God ^^ will depend on how far it 
shall be the faithful preaching of Jesus Christ. 
No inquiry, therefore, in the course of your 
preparation, or at this stage of your career, 
should seem to you of such importance as 
that which seeks a full understanding of the 
work of preaching Christ Jesus our Lord and 

(3) 



4 THE WOBK OF PRE AGEING CHRIST. 

Saviour, according as it is taught in the Scrip- 
tures, and set before us in the example of the 
Apostles. It is an inquiry with which the 
work of a minister of Christ will be more and 
more identified as he himself shall grow in 
the mind of his Master, and in a personal ex- 
perience of the power and preciousness of the 
grace revealed in Him. 

It is now forty years since I was called of 
God, and in His Providence permitted and 
enabled to take part in this holy ministry ; and 
more and more have I learned the need that 
ministers should keep their teaching close to 
that one central and living theme, if they 
would have it honored of God as his power 
unto salvation; and the need, moreover, of con- 
stant and jealous watchfulness against the 
many snares and by-ways by which we may 
be led into such departures therefrom as will 
have the effect in part, if not entirely, of un- 
evangelizing our work. 

Allow me therefore, out of an earnest de- 
sire to promote your usefulness and happiness 
in the office to which you trust you are in- 
wardly called by the Holy Ghost, to request 
your serious and prayerful attention to these 
pages, addressed to you by one whose age 
and experience of these things are his title 
to speak to you on such subjects. 



TEE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 5 

I propose to you, as our starting-point, the 
question — What is embraced in the work of 
preaching Christ according to the mind of 
the Spirit, as exhibited in the teaching of His 
Word, and in the practice of His Apostles? 

'^ Go preach the Gospel '^ were the words of 
our Lord to his Apostles, which conveyed to 
them and to us the whole weight and sub- 
stance of the commission of His Ministers and 
Ambassadors. It was the unquestioning obe- 
dience of a simple and unhesitating faith to 
that one command, animated by an unquench- 
able love to its divine Author and to the souls 
He died to save, enlightened by the teaching 
and made mighty by the power of the Holy 
Ghost, that constituted all the vigor and effi- 
cacy of the ministry of the Apostles. It was 
thus that their weapons of warfare became 
"mighty through God,'^ and achieved those 
stupendous victories of the truth over " the 
spirit that ruleth in the children of disobedi- 
ence,'' which the weaker faith and more timid 
obedience of the Church in later days have so 
poorly imitated. And as in the beginning, so 
also in all times of the Christian dispensation, 
it has pleased God that sinners shall be 
brought " into captivity to the obedience of 
Christ,'' and made partakers of His salvation, 



6 THE WORK OF PEE ACHING CHRIST. 

by the obedience of His Ministers to that one 
original charge and command — ^''Preach the 
Gospeiy Faith by hearing, Gospel faith by 
hearing Grospel truth, and such hearing by 
the preaching of the word of God, is His 
standing rule according to which He bestows 
His Spirit for the conviction, conversion, and 
sanctification of men. 

But it is manifest from the Scriptures that 
the Apostles identified the Gospel with Christ; 
so that, in their view and practice, to preach 
the Gospel was neither more nor less than to 
preach Christ. The record which, in a few 
words, describes their ministry is, that, '* daily 
in the temple and in every house they ceased 
not to teach and preach Jesus Christ/^ St. 
Paul to the Romans defines the whole Gospel 
by saying that it is " concerning Jesus 
Christ.'' "^ The employment of his two years' 
imprisonment at Rome was all comprehended 
in " teaching those things which concern the 
Lord Jesus.'' And his whole ministry was 
given unto him, he testifies, that he ^^ might 
preach the unsearchable riches of Christ." As 
he could say, " For me to live is Christ," so 
for him to preach was Christ. To him Christ 
and the Gospel were one. 

* Rom. i. 3. 



THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 7 

But we must here note the chief feature in 
their preaching of Christ. They omitted noth- 
ing pertaining to Him; but there was one 
thing on which, more than .any thing else, they 
very particularly and emphatically dwelt. 
They took great pains to set forth the Lord 
Jesus in all that He was and is; in person and 
office, as once on earth and now in heaven; His 
preexistent glory with the Father, His incarna- 
tion and humiliation in our nature, His death, 
resurrection, and intercession; all His love, 
all His promises, all His commandments ; so 
that there was no part of the whole counsel 
of God "concerning His Son Jesus Chrisf 
which they kept back. But manifestly there 
was one event in His history, one work 
amidst all His works, which stood in their 
view as the great event and work, around 
which they gathered the force of their testi- 
mony, as its central light and power — to 
which they made all that went before it look 
forward for consummation, and all that succeed- 
ed it look back as to its foundation, and on the 
faithful declaration of which, with its imme- 
diate connections, they very especially rested 
the faithfulness of their work as preachers of 
the Gospel. No doubt you anticipate me. 
Such passages of the Apostles arise to your 



8 THE WORK OF PEE ACHING CHRIS T. 

minds, as, " We preach Christ crucified ;^^ "I 
determined not to know anything among you 
(while declaring unto you the testimony of 
God) save Jesus Christ ^nd Him crucified ;^^ 
" God forbid that I should glory save in 
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ ; ^' " For the 
preaching of the cross is to them that perish 
foolishness, but unto us which are saved it is 
the power of God.'' They preached Christ 
— but as Christ crucified. They said con- 
tinually, like John the Baptist, '^ Behold the 
Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of 
the world," but it was the "Lamb slain^^ — 
Christ in His death — bearing " our sins in His 
own body on the tre6,'' that they pointed to. 
They rejoiced in everything pertaining to 
their Lord, from His birth at Bethlehem to His 
present glory at the Father's right hand ; but 
the one thing in which they rejoiced so su- 
premely was His cross. Of the two sacraments 
ordained of Christ for his Church, that which 
alone goes with the believer, to be renewed 
and repeated all along the way of his earthly 
life, has for its great object to " show the 
Lord's death until He come.'' It was a great 
lesson which the Lord thus taught us as to 
how we must preach Him. His Apostles 
therefore became in speech what that sacra- 



THE WORK OF P BE ACHING C HEIST. 9 

ment is . in symbol, constantly showing the 
Lord^s death as the sinner's life. Thus, when 
they spoke of the Christian's race for "the 
prize of the high calling of God in Christ 
Jesus'' — and when they exhorted us while 
in that contest to be always " looking unto 
Jesus "^ — the special aspect in which they 
presented Him was as enduring the cross. And 
I need not here say that their sense of the 
supreme importance in their ministry of the 
death of Christ, was because they beheld 
therein the one only and the one all-sufficient 
sacrifice and propitiation, the vicarious atone- 
ment, for the sins of the whole world; that 
great work of God wherein he laid in Zion, 
for a sure foundation, the precious corner- 
stone, on which the sinner believing shall not 
be confounded. It is all contained in one 
verse — "' Christ hath once suffered for sins, 
the just for the unjust, to bring us to God." ^ 
And again, " Christ hath redeemed us from 
the curse of the law, being made a curse for 
us." t 

Thus we have our lesson and example. In 

the way the Apostles preached the Gospel we 

must try to 'preach it. As they preached 

Christ, so must we. God forbid that we 

* 1 Pet. iii. 18. f Gal. iii. 13. 



10 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 

should glory in anything else as ministers of 
the word. Preachers of Christ, according to 
the mind of Christ — ah, how all honors, all 
satisfaction in our work, will perish but that ! 
When our stewardship is to be accounted for, 
and we are just departing, and the veil, half 
drawn aside, discloses what we are to meet 
and what to be forever, how then shall we 
care for praise of learning, or praise of speech, 
or any vapors of men's applause ! But then, 
to have ^^ the testimony of our conscience that 
in simplicity and godly sincerity, — not with 
enticing words of man's wisdom,'' — we have 
made it our life-business and our heart-pleas- 
ure to " teach and preach Jesus Christ," as 
they did whom He gave to be our examples, 
having ourselves first learned his preciousness 
to our own souls, oh, what consolation and 
thankfulness with which to die ! 

Evidently then, my brethren, it is a most 
serious question to be always studying, how 
we may so proclaim the truth committed to us 
in Holy Scripture, that in the sense of the 
Apostles it may be said of us in our whole 
ministry, that " we preach Christ crucified.''^ 
To this we devote this address. Many are 
the failures — many the egregious failures. 
Sometimes it seems as if the preacher could 



THE WOBK OF PBEACEING CHRIST. 11 

preach just as he does if Christ and His work 
were a mere incident in religion, a name, and 
little more — answering now and then as a 
convenience to a sentence ; introduced occa- 
sionally, because, under some texts, it is not 
easily avoided, but never as the root and 
foundation out of which our whole ministry 
proceeds. But what awful condemnation to 
be thus essentially defective at the very heart 
of the great work committed to us ! Nothing 
can in the least atone for it. You might as 
well attempt to turn night into day, by light- 
ing a candle as a substitute for the sun. 
Our ministry is all darkness, emptiness, and 
impotence ; all condemnation to us, all delu- 
sion to those who hear us, all dishonor to the 
grace of God, whatever the breath of man may 
say of it, except as it is pervaded, illumined, 
filled with the testimony of Christ as once the 
sacrifice for sin, crucified and slain, now the 
glorified and ever-living intercessor for all that 
come unto God by Him. 

There are many ways of approaching more 
or less to that attainment without ever reach- 
ing it. Some of the most common we will en- 
deavor to state. 

It is very possible to preach a great deal of 
important religious truth, and so that there 



12 TEE WORK OF PEEACEINa CHRIST. 

shall be no admixture of important error in 
doctrine or precept — jea, truth having an im- 
portant relation to Christ and His office, — and 
yet not to preach Christ. The defect will be, not 
in the presence of what should not be there, 
but in the absence of that which is necessary 
to give all the truth delivered,, the character 
of '■ trutlias it is in Jesus^ Such absence, when 
nevertheless all is true, may be more destruc- 
tive to the Gospel character of the preaching, 
than even the introduction of some positive 
error. The preaching may be very earnest. 
It may contain much that is affecting and 
deeply impressive — strong emotions maybe 
stirred in the hearers. The earnest inquiry 
may be excited, What must we do? And 
yet the preaching may wholly fail in giving 
any such distinct answer to that question, as 
will turn the attention of the inquirer to 
Christ as all his refuge. You may say a great 
deal about and around the Gospel, and never 
preach the Gospel. Religious truths are not 
the Gospel, except in proportion as, like John 
the Baptist, they point to the Lamb of God. 
For example — suppose you preach on the 
vanity of the world ; the uncertainty of life ; 
the awfulness of death unprepared for ; the tre- 
mendous events of the judgment-day ; the lit. 



TEE WOBK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 13 

tie profit of gaining the whole world and los- 
ing the soul; suppose you enlarge on the 
necessity and blessedness of a religious life, 
and the happiness of the saved. Does it follow 
that you have preached the Gospel^ or any 
part of it? If deep impressions are made, and 
serious inquiries excited, does it follow that 
Christ is preached ? Such topics unquestion- 
ably belong most legitimately to our ministry ; 
they are important parts of the truth given us 
to enforce; but they are entirely subordinate 
and preliminary. They are not the distinctive 
seed of the word from which God has ordained 
that newness of life shall spring. They are 
rather the plough and the harrow to open and 
stir the ground, that it may receive the seed 
of life. You may spend all your time in such 
work — not omitting to sprinkle your dis- 
courses with the oft-repeated name of Christ 
and with much Gospel language ; and just be- 
cause there is no pervading exhibition of 
Christ, in His work of Justification by His 
righteousness, and of Sanctification by His 
Spirit, given so pointedly and plainly that 
whosoever will may understand, you may nev- 
er attain to the honor, in the sight of God, of 
teaching and preaching Jesus Christ, what- 
ever the estimate of those who have not 



14 TEE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST, 

learned to discriminate between truth that is 
religious, and truth that is not only religious, 
but distinctively Gos^el-trnth ; who know not 
the difference between such preaching as 
makes the hearer feel some spiritual want, and 
that which also tells him what he wants, and 
where and how he is to find it. The hearer 
who has learned Christ as his lesson of heart 
and life, of hope and peace, and knows nothing 
as precious to his soul, but as it leads him 
to Jesus on the cross of sacrifice, and on the 
throne of intercession, Jesus in His invitations 
and promises, Jesus in His grace to help, His 
righteousness to justify, and His power to 
sanctify, will feel that in all that ministry " one 
thing is needful^^^ — and that one thing, the 
very thing on which all its Gospel character 
hinges — Christ. 

But let us advance a little farther. You 
may preach with faithfulness and plainness 
the strictness and holiness of the law, how it 
enters with its requirements into the thoughts 
and affections of the heart, pronouncing con- 
demnation on the sinner, and bringing us all 
in guilty before God. There may be no shrink- 
ing from the fullest exposition of the Scrip- 
tures concerning the end of the impenitent ; 
no lack of earnest calls to repentance, nor of 



THE WOBK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 15 

solemn declarations of the necessity of a new- 
heart, and of holiness if we would see the 
Lord. Still more: the oflBce of Christ as the 
only Saviour, and His merits as the only plea, 
may be introduced not unfrequently, and yet 
may there be a great lack of such distinct 
holding up of Christ crucified, as Moses lifted 
up the serpent in the wilderness before the 
dying Israelites for all to see and live — such 
presentation of God^s great remedy for every 
man^s necessities as belongs to the consisten- 
cy, simplicity, and fullness of the work com- 
mitted to the minister of the Gospel. While 
speaking much of duty, the grace to enable 
us to do it, may not be proportionably pre- 
sented. While the need of personal holiness, 
and of a new heart as its essential basis, may 
be strongly urged, you may keep almost en- 
tirely out of sight the w^ork of the Spirit of 
Life in Christ Jesus, from whom all holy 
desires, and all newness of heart and life pro- 
ceed. While the penalties of sin may be kept 
in full view, the fullness, and tenderness, and 
earnestness of the invitations and promises of 
Christ to the sinner turning unto God, may 
be very dimly exhibited. That great lesson, 
w^hich we have need to be always studying, may 
have been but little learned — how to preach 



16 TEE WOEK OF PEE ACHING CEEIST. 

the law as showing our need of the righteous- 
ness of Christ, and how to preach the Gospel 
as establishing and honoring the law ; the one 
to convince of sin and condemnation, the other 
as providing a deliverance so complete, that to 
the believer there is no condemnation ; the 
one as taking away all pleas derived from our- 
selves, the other as furnishing a most perfect 
and prevailing plea in the mediation of Christ ; 
the law as giving the rule of life, the Gospel as 
giving the power of life, yea, life from death, in 
Jesus Christ ; the law to humble us under a con- 
sciousness of an utter beggary before God, the 
Gospel as directing us to Him in whom it pleased 
the Father that all fullness should dwell. 

Again. It may be that doctrine immedi- 
ately concerning the Lord Jesus, and bringing 
His person and office into view, may be much 
introduced. We may take opportunity to speak 
of the infinite dignity of His being ; the mys- 
tery of His incarnation ; the humiliation, and 
love, and grace of His coming in our nature ; 
His tenderness, and compassion, and power to 
save ; the perfectness of His example, and the 
depth of His suflTerings. Indeed, everything 
revealed concerning Him may at times be found 
in our teaching, without error, and in each par- 
ticular, as it stands by itself, without serious 



THE WORK OF PBEACEING CEBIST. 17 

defect. But there may be still an important 
deficiency. The proportion of truth may not 
be kept. There is a proportion of parts in the 
whole body of Gospel truth just as in our own 
bodies. We must omit none of the parts, but 
put each in its right relation to all the rest. 
To fail in this, so that, while we embrace all, 
we deform all by a disproportionate exaltation 
of some and depression of others, may be just 
as destructive' of the Gospel character of our 
ministry, just as confusing and misleading, 
as if we omitted some truths and perverted 
others. For example, you may preach Christ 
in various aspects ; but Christ crucified^ the 
great Sacrifice of propitiation, though not 
omitted, may not have that high place, that 
central place, that all-controlling place, that 
place of the head-stone of the corner, which is 
necessary to its right adjustment to all parts 
of the system of faith. You may preach the 
incarnation of Christ in all its truth as a sepa- 
rate event, and yet in great error as regards 
its relation to other events, making it so un- 
duly prominent that His death shall be made 
to appear comparatively subordinate and un- 
essential, — the means exalted above the end, — 
the preparation of the body of Christ for sac- 
rifice being made of more importance and more 
2 



18 TEE WORK OF PREACEING CERIST, 

eflfective in our salvation, than His offering 
of that body on the cross. But the Sacrament 
of the Lord's Supper, which we carry with us 
all the way of our journey, as our great con- 
fession, and joy, and glory, was appointed to 
show, as oft as we eat that bread and drink 
that cup, not the Lord's births or life, but " the 
Lord's death until He come." 
. You may preach all of Christ's work as well 
as person, and all in due proportion of parts, 
and yet some other vital truth essentially con- 
nected, maybe so disproportionately presented 
as to create in the whole a most important 
defect. You have exhibited the foundation 
which God hath laid in Zion. The question 
remains, how the sinner is to avail himself of 
that foundation. He is to build thereon. But 
how ? The Apostle answers, ''He that believeth 
on Him shall not be confounded." We build 
by faith. We cannot preach Christ without 
preaching on that by which we become ^^ par- 
takers of Christ." Confusion, indistinctness, 
feebleness, deficiency there, must produce the 
same effect throughout the whole Gospel. If 
faith, in its nature, office, efficacy, and distinc- 
tive operation and fruits, be kept in a place 
so obscure, so subordinate, or tauglit so con. 
fusedly, that either it is. wholly out of sight or 



THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 19 



hid in a crowd of other things, placed in the 
outer court of the temple instead of immedi- 
ately by the altar of sacrifice, as the one in- 
strumental grace by which the sinner partakes 
of the " Lamb of God ; '' if the works which are 
its fruits, be so confounded with itself that the 
grace by which we are " rooted and grounded ^' 
in Christ, is made of no more influence in our 
participation of Him, than the several works 
of righteousness which grow out of its life, 
and follow upon the participation of Christ 
through its agency, — then is the relative ad- 
justment of truth most seriously spoiled and 
deformed. 

Lastly, under this head of our inquiry, it 
may be that occasionally in a discourse, now 
and then, the setting forth of Christ is satis- 
factory in point of doctrine, and the proportion 
of truth. But it may be only occasionally thus, 
and only when the text so obliges, according 
to rhetorical propriety, that we cannot avoid 
it. But such texts may not be chosen very 
often. Passing from subject to subject, the 
preacher comes, from time to time, to one which 
necessarily leads to the manifestation of Christ, 
in some leading feature of His grace and sal- 
vation ; and then all may be well done, and 
calculated to enlighten a mind hungering for 



20 THE WOBK OF PBEACHING CHRIST, 

the truth. But, meanwhile, you may hear 
many a discourse which contains scarcely more 
of anything distinctive of the Gospel, or per- 
taining to Christ, except perhaps His name 
sometimes introduced, than if it were some 
other religion than Christ^s of which the preach- 
er is the minister. And in the general course 
of his work, we may look in vain after such 
evident fondness of heart for views which most 
intimately and directly look unto Jesus ; such 
habitual feeding of the flock in pastures wa- 
tered by the river that proceedeth out of the 
throne of God and the Lamb ; such strong ten- 
dency, when subjects not directly testifying of 
Christ must be handled, to keep them as near 
to Him as possible, and to return from them as 
soon as possible to others of a nearer neigh- 
borhood to the cross ; such desire to illuminate 
all subjects with light from " the face of Jesus 
Christ ^^ as proves the preacher's determination 
•' to know nothing among men but Jesus Christ 
and Him crucified. '^ We miss that habitualness 
of the testimony of Christ, that special love 
for all the region round about Gethsemane and 
Calvary, the atonement and the intercession, 
and the great gifts of the Spirit purchased 
thereby ; we miss that constant tracing of all 
spiritual life and consolation, in its every influ- 



THE WORK OF FBEAQHING CHRIST. 21 

ence and fruit, to Christ as the life, and that 
careful binding of all spiritual affections and 
duties upon him for support and strength, as 
the vine-dresser trains his vine upon its trellis, 
which appears so remarkably in the teaching 
of the Apostles. 

Again. There is a way of preaching, which, 
in a dry, doctrinal sense, may avoid all the de- 
fects we have adverted to, and yet in a very 
serious measure include them all. It seems to 
be formed on the idea that it is inapplicable, in 
these days of advancement, to preach the sim- 
ple Gospel in its own simplicity^ surrounding 
and setting forth its truths with scriptural 
illustrations and associations, so that it shall be 
not only the Gospel in the substance of its 
doctrine, but the Gospel in its nature, form, 
visage, drapery, and savor. The idea of the 
preacher seems to be, that such preaching 
would be considered antiquated and worn out ; 
something requiring more originality^ more 
depth of philosophical investigation, is de- 
manded, to make people hear the Gospel. You 
must make it look as little like the Gospel, as 
is consistent with preserving substantially the 
Gospel doctrine. The preacher preaches liim- 
self. To make the hearer regard him as a man 
of thought and depth, elevated by education 



22 TEE WORK OF PBEACEING CHRIST. 

above that simplicity of teaching which he 
supposes anybody can attain to, he affects the 
philosopher, deals in abstractions, dissociates 
the Master's message from the authority and 
mind of the Master, and the simplicity of His 
inspired word; as if the loise only, such as are 
capable of appreciating great efforts of mind, 
were expected to understand. He seeks to 
use a ^^ wisdom of words,'' which St. Paul re- 
jected, ^^ lest the cross of Christ should be made 
of none effect.^' To prevent the preaching of 
the cross from being " foolishness " to the natu- 
ral man, who '^ receiveth not the things of the 
Spirit of God " '^ because they are spiritually 
discerned," he so departs from the preaching 
of the cross as St. Paul gave it, that his preach- 
ing is not, and cannot expect to be, ^^ in dem- 
onstration of the Spirit und of power. ''^ They 
that hear to be pleased with a show of mind 
are perhaps gratified. They that come to be 
elevated in their affections to things above, 
and to be fed with the bread of heaven, are 
sorely disappointed. They came to see Jesus. 
They have seen only that man in the pulpit, and 
his empty abstractions. They asked bread, 
and he gave them a stone. There is much of 
such wretched work in various degrees ; and 
some people have become, in their appetite, so 



THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 23 

reduced to it, that if a minister be not of that 
sort, they turn away from him, as one who is 
not deep enough for their minds. Away with 
such chaff, in view of the day when '' the fire 
shall try every man's work of what sort it is.'- 
We have thus endeavored to indicate some 
of the paths by which, without delivering any- 
thing untrue, and while delivering much im- 
portant truth, we may come short of the duty 
under consideration. We proceed to consider 
how we may fulfil it. 

What is it to preach Christ? 

We have a great example in our Lord's own 
teaching. When, after His resurrection. He 
met the two disciples on the way to Emmaus, 
and found them in such darkness and doubt 
concerning Himself, it is written that, '' begin- 
ning at Moses, and all the prophets, He ex- 
pounded unto them, in all the Scriptures, the 
things concerning Himself; '' the things concern- 
ing Himself, The office of the Ministry is so 
to expound the Scriptures in all their parts as 
to bring out the things concerning that glori- 
ous One, Himself. St. Paul therefore said that 
he was " separated unto the Gospel of God 
concerning His Son Jesus Christ.^^ "^ To teach 

* Rom. i. 1-3. 



24 TEE WORK OF FEEACHING CHRIST. 

sinners to know Christ, and to *^ count all things 
but loss for the excellency of the knowledge 
of Him/' looking to the power of the Holy 
Ghost to communicate through the truth, which 
we give only in the letter, that spiritual and 
saving knowledge which only God giveth, is 
the general expression of our duty. 

But in the Gospel '^ concerning our Lord 
Jesus Christ/' that is, in the circle of doctrines, 
and duties, and promises, and blessings which 
constitute the message of great salvation in 
Him, there is, as we have already hinted, a 
system of parts mutually related and depen- 
dent, all in perfect harmony, none so obscure 
or remote as to be of no importance to the 
right representation of the whole. That sys- 
tem, like that of our sun, has a centre, by which 
all the parts are held in place, from which all 
their light and life proceed, and around which 
all revolve. You cannot exhibit the system 
of truth and duty till you have made known 
that central light and power ; nor can you make 
known that power in all its truth without ex- 
hibiting those surrounding and dependent parts 
of doctrine and precept. That central sun of 
light and life is Christ. All of Gospel truth 
and duty, of consolation and strength, abides 
in Christ — derives from Christ, and glorifies 



THE WORK OF PRE AGEING CEBIST. 25 

Christ — and must be so presented, or else it 
is divorced from its only life, and loses its Gos- 
pel character. He is the True Vine, and all 
parts of Gospel truth are branches in Him. 
Let such truth be presented without that con- 
nection ; then its character as truth may re- 
main, but its character for ^^ truth as it is in 
Jesus '' is lost. Its vitality is gone. Fruit of life 
in Christ Jesus it cannot produce. It is just as 
true and important concerning religious truth 
as concerning religious men, that ^^ the branch 
cannot bring forth fruit except it abide in the 
vine.'' 

Now, what is the best mode of setting forth 
this system of grace ? Where shall we begin ? 
Shall we first take up the elements of religion, 
the outsides of the circle ; reasoning upward 
from general truths to the more particular; 
explaining and enforcing ordinances and insti- 
tutions of the Church as our road of approach 
to the Head and Life of the Church ; confining 
attention to means of grace before we have 
directed our hearers to the grace itself in the 
great Fountain-head; and thus gradually, and 
after a long process of preparatory work, ar- 
riving at last at the person, and mission, and 
sacrifice of Christ ? But we must remember 
who they are whom we are thus keeping so 



26 THE WORK OF FBEAQHINQ CHRIST. 

long in the cold and in the dark. They are 
sinners under the condemnation of the law of 
God. They are dying sinners. How brief 
the time of some of them to learn, you know 
not. You have no time to spend on prelimi- 
naries before you have introduced them to the 
great salvation. What they have most need 
to know iSj He who came to seek and to save 
the lost — how they may find Him, and what 
are the terms of His Salvation. Begin at once 
with Christ — " Behold the Lamb of God'' 
is the voice. There is no light till that Light 
appears. The icy bondage of the sinner's 
heart yields not till that Sun is risen. Astron- 
omers, when they teach the solar system, begin 
with the sun. Thence to the related and de- 
pendent orbits is easy. So the Apostles taught. 
See how, when they had the whole system of 
the Gospel, as distinguished from that of the 
law, to teach the Jews, — the whole outward 
and visible of the Christian Church, as well as 
all the inward and spiritual of the Christian 
life, all so new, and strange, and unpalatable to 
a people so unprepared, so entangled with tra- 
ditionary aversions and deep-seated perversions, 
— see how they leaped over all preliminaries, 
and began at once with Christ and Him cruci- 
fied, the sacrifice of His death, " and the pow- 



THE WORK OF PEEAGHING CHRIST. 27 

er of his resurrection.'' At once they broke 
ground and set up the banner of their ministry 
there. Just at the point where the pride of 
the sinner would most revolt, and the wisdom 
of man was most at fault, and the ignorance 
of Jew and Gentile was most complete, where 
the Jew saw only a stumbling-block and the 
Greek only foolishness, there they opened their 
message. " I delivered unto you, first of all 
(said St. Paul), that which I also received, how 
that Christ died for our sins, according to the 
Scriptures.'' ^ They could not wait to root 
out prejudice, plant first principles, approach 
the intrenched power " that ruleth in the chil- 
dren of disobedience," by the strategy of 
man's wisdom, when they knew that Christ 
was the great '' power of God unto salvation." 
At once to open the windows and let in the sun 
was their way of giving light to them that sat 
in darkness. At once to show the amazing 
love of God to sinners in not sparing His own 
Son, but delivering Him up for us all, was their 
way to draw the sinner's heart to God. Hu- 
man device would have said, as it has often 
said, in substance. Make philosophy prepare 
the way. Clothe your teaching in robes of 
man's wisdom. Keep back the offence of the 

1 Cor. XV. 3. 



28 THE WORK OF PREAQHING CHRIST. . 

cross till you have first conciliated the respect 
of your hearers by a show of human learning 
and reasoning. And when your Master must 
be preached directly, don't begin at His death. 
Speak of His life, its benevolence, its beauty. 
Compare His moral precepts with those of 
heathen sages. Christ as the example and the 
teacher is your great theme. " No (said St. 
Paul), lest the cross should be of none effect,'' 
'' that your faith should not stand in the wisdom 
of men, but in the 'power of God." They re- 
membered the words of their Lord, " I, if I be 
lifted up, will draw all men unto me.'' Lifted 
up on the cross He had now been. Lifted up 
as Christ crucified for us, in the sight of the 
whole world, by the ministry of the Gospel, He 
was next to be. Such was God's argument 
with sinful men. 

They believed, and therefore preached. God 
gave the increase, and wonderful was the har- 
vest. 

Thus, dear brethren, we have our lesson. 
We must begin as well as end with Christ, and 
always abide in Him, for the life and power 
of our ministry, just as for the peace and joy 
of our own souls. But having thus begun, 
what remains ? It is the revealed oflSce of 
the Holy Ghost, as the Sanctifier and the 



THE WOEK OF PREACHING CHRIST, 29 

Comforter, to glorify Christ. " He shall glorify 
me/' said the Lord. But how ? ^' He shall 
take of mine, and show it unto youJ^ It is our 
office also, under the power of the Holy Ghost, 
to glorify Christ in all His person and relations 
to us, and by the same method, namely, to take 
of what pertains to Him, and shoio it unto men. 
Whatever pertains to Him we are to show. 
We must ^^ expound in all the Scriptures the 
things concerning Himself Of those things 
we will attempt a brief sketch and outline, but 
it must be only the merest outline, and that 
very imperfect. 

We must preach Christ in regard to the 
glory of the Godhead which He Jiad with the 
Father before the world was. We cannot ex- 
hibit the death of the cross to which He be- 
came obedient, without considering the infinite 
majesty of the throne from which He descend- 
ed. We must keep the connection which the 
Apostle has given us between the glory of our 
Lord before He came in the flesh, and His hu- 
miliation in the flesh. You remember that 
^^ He became obedient unto death, even the death 
of the cross,^^ is introduced by *' being in the 
form of God, He thought it not robbery to be equal 
with God.'' ^ 

♦ Phil. ii. 6-8. 



30 THE WOEK OF PEE AGEING CHEIST, 

In the same connection is the Incarnation 
and Birth of our Lord. Very near are the 
mysteries of Bethlehem to those of Calvary. 
We cannot tell how Jesus bore our sins with- 
out telling how He took our nature. To show 
that He could stand in man^s place under the 
law, we must show that He was made very 
man. Hence, in the Apostle's account, between 
the form of God from all eternity and the 
obedience unto death, the connecting event is, 
^^ He was made in the likeness of manJ^ We 
must take care that in a just zeal for His divin- 
ity, we do not impair or put in a place of com- 
parative unimportance His humanity. The one 
is as essential to the Gospel as the other — 
the perfect man as the perfect God. Our con- 
fession glories as much in the Word ^^ made 
flesh,'' as in the truth that the same Word " was 
God.'' In beholding and showing the great 
salvation, we are to consider as of equal neces- 
sity thereto ^^ the 3Ian Christ Jesus," and that 
He was, and is, '^ Jehovah our Righteousness." 
In the earliest ages of Satan's attack upon the 
integrity of the Gospel, the heresies did not 
more assail the essential divinity, than the real 
humanit}^, of Christ ; knowing that if He were 
not perfect man, the sacrifice for man's sins 
were as unavailing as if He had been only man. 



TEE WOEK OF PBEAOEING CERIST. 31 

The assaults of these present times are indic- 
ative, we think, of the same strateg)^. How 
carefully and minutely do the Scriptures ex- 
hibit our Lord as man in all that is of man, 
while at the same time we are made to behold 
His glory, " as of the only begotten of the 
Father, full of grace and truth '' ! ^^ In the full- 
ness of time, God sent forth His Son, made of 
a woman,'' that in all time and to all eternity, 
He might be " made unto us of God,'' through 
His death, " wisdom, and righteousness, and 
sanctification, and redemption." 

In setting forth our Lord's atoning death, 
we must keep in full view His perfect life — 
that suffering life between the cradle and the 
cross, in which His obedience to the law, com- 
pleted by the endurance of its curse for us, 
was all wrought out. He was the Lamb with- 
out sjQotj that He might be the sacrifice all- 
sufiicient. It was His meetness as the pur- 
chase-price of our redemption, and at the 
same time the pattern of the mind which must 
be in us to make us meet to be partakers of 
that redemption. Christ our example of holi- 
ness is a most important part of the setting 
forth of Christ as our foundation of hope. 
There was one hour in His life for which He 
came into this world ; ^ but every hour while 

♦ John xii. 23, and xvii. 1. 



32 THE WORK OF PJBEAOHINQ QHBIST. 

He was in this world, as leading to that, ex- 
hibited the mind that was in Christ Jesus, and 
which must be also in us. 

In preaching Christ crucified, let us take 
care that we avoid the mistake, not unfrequent- 
ly made, of terminating our representation 
almost entirely with the crucifixion — as if the 
slaying of the sacrifice completed the ohla- 
tion of the sacrifice ; forgetting the office of 
the High Priest to enter within the veil with 
the blood of sprinkling, carrying the sacrifice 
before the mercy-seat, there to appear in the 
presence of God for us, and thus to '^ obtain 
eternal redemption for us/' " Christ crucified '' 
is not merely Christ on the cross, but Christ 
also " on the right hand of the throne of God,^' 
as having '^ endured the cross. ^' That throne 
is called ^^ the throne of the Lamb^'' and the 
redeemed in heaven are represented as prais- 
ing " the Lamb tliat was slainJ^ The preach- 
ing of Christ crucified goes necessarily into all 
that Christ did and obtained for us after, and 
in consequence of, His crucifixion. His resur- 
rection, ascension, and exaltation to head-ship 
over all .things, and to be a Priest forever over 
the house of God, are great themes, vitally 
associated with what immediately preceded 
them, forming the essential connection between 



THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST, 33 

what was finished " once for all '' when Jesus 
died, and what is yet to be finished ^4br all 
that come unto God by Him/^ now that He 
^' ever liveth.^' We must preach Christ in 
His ever-living intercession — Christ the High 
Priest above with the incense and the blood 
— or we leave incomplete the view of Christ 
crucified. When He cried, '^ It is Jinished^^^ 
and ^^ gave up the ghost/^ it was the slaying 
of the sacrifice ; it was the suff*ering of the 
Lamb of God for us ; it was the being " made a 
curse for us/' that was then finished. ^^ There 
remaineth no more sacrifice for sin ; '^ but 
there does remain the perpetual oblation of 
the one finislied sacrifice. Our hope stops not 
at the cross, but " entereth to that within the 
veil, whither Jesus our forerunner is also, for 
us, entered, made a High Priest forever after 
the order of Melchizedek.'' Thither, therefore, 
our ministry must also enter. Too often does, 
what in other respects is well as Gospel preach- 
ing, come short of that mark. Our preaching 
follows Christ in His resurrection, and perhaps 
in His ascension ; but do we suflSciently place 
before the faith of the sinner, for his prayers 
and his hopes to rest on, for his consolation and 
peace to drink of, when he strives to come unto 
God, Jesus as now the living, glorious Inter- 
3 



34 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 

cesser, showing in His hands the print of the 
nails of the sacrifice of propitiation, and bear- 
ing in His heart all the necessities of every 
believer? When we exhort to the running 
the race with patience, ^^ looking unto Jesus/^ 
do we sufficiently direct the eye of the hearer 
to Jesus, the glorijiedj in His present office 
and work for us ? Remember that when the 
Apostle said, ^^ He is able to save to the utter- 
most," he added, as the essential evidence, 
" seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for 
us^ 

I must not pass from this immediate neigh- 
borhood of the great sacrifice without a few 
words about its nature. To speak of it as a 
sacrifice for sin in such general terms only as 
leave room for the most unreal, figurative, and 
accommodated sense, is to come far short of 
our duty, and of what the special tendency of 
error in these days demands. When we ad- 
minister the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, 
we " show the Lord's deatliP Let us take care 
that when we show the same in words, we do 
not come short of the teaching of the Sacra- 
ment concerning it. The Protestant Episcopal 
church interprets that teaching with studied 
precision, in her communion office, in reference 
to errors prevalent when that office was framed. 



THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 35 

She calls the sacrifice " a full, perfect, and suf- 
ficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for 
the sins of the whole world.'' She teaches us 
to pray for remission of sins ihrougli faith in 
the blood of Christ. We must imitate that pre- 
cision in reference to errors now propagated. 
Besides the perfectness and sufficiency of the 
sacrifice, in opposition to those who would add 
to it, we must insist strongly and pointedly on 
its strictly propitiatory and vicarious nature, 
in opposition to those who would destroy it. 
Under such strong texts as " Christ hath re- 
deemed us from the curse of the law, being made 
a curse for us ; " "^ " He hath made Him to be 
sin for us who knew no sin,'' f we must teach 
Christ as standing literally in our stead under 
the condemnation of our sins ; all our guilt laid 
upon Him ; He the condemned one for us, that 
we might be accounted the righteous in Him. 
I see not how we can come short of such a 
sacrifice, and yet preach Christ crucified, ac- 
cording to the Scriptures.:]: 

* Gal. iii. 13. t 2 Cor. v. 21. 

{ The strictly substitutionary character of Christ's sac- 
rifice for our sins, I consider of the most vital importance 
to be clearly taught, if we would satisfy the language of 
Scripture, or do our duty to God and man. ^* He was 
made sin for us ; " by which I understand that He stood for 
us under the law, by imputation of our sins, bearing all our 



36 THE WORK OF PBEAGEING CHRIST. 

Closely allied to our Lord's priesthood, oflfer- 
ing the perpetual oblation of His sacrifice, is 
His office as the great Prophet and Teacher of 
His Church. '^ In Him are hid all the treasures 
of wisdom and knowledge/' He is "made 
unto us of God wisdom,^^ as well as "right- 
eousness.'' Christ crucified, is Christ the Light 
as well as the Life. To His invitation, " Come 
unto me and I will give you rest," is joined the 
precept, "' Learn of meJ^ The great subject of 
saving learning is Christ Himself, and He is the 
only efi*ectual teacher of that learning. They 
that have " learned Christ," so as truly to know 
Him, are declared to have " been taught by Him 
tlie truth as it is in Jesus^ Whatever our ad- 
vantages of human teaching, even of the truest 
exposition of God's inspired word, all is pow- 
erless spiritually to enlighten us in the knowl- 
edge of God and of Christ, till He who speaks 
as never man spake, shall add to it the teach- 
ing of His Spirit, so that we shall learn, not 
merely by the Scriptures, hut from and o/* 
Him. Christ as " the truth " as well as "' the 
wayj^ " the wisdom " as well as " the righteous- 
ness of God," the living " Word " as well as the 

sins, and as perfectly identified and charged with them, 
as it was possible for one *' who knew no sin " in Himself 
to be. 



THE WOBK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 37 

ever-living Priest and Intercessor, must be 
showed in our ministry, if we preach Christ 
crucified, not merely as once on the cross, but 
as now in His glory. 

But Christ crucified is not only " the right- 
eousness of God '' and ^' the wisdom of God,'' 
but ^^ the power of God unto salvation.'' '^ Him 
hath God exalted to be aPrincej^^ that he may 
be a Saviour, " mighty to save^ ^^ Unto the 
Son, He saith, Thy throne, God, is forever 
and ever; a sceptre of righteousness is the 
sceptre of Thy kingdom." Christ as King, in a 
glorious sovereignty over all things in heaven 
and earth, we must declare. It is the crown- 
ing aspect of Christ, the crucified. It is ^' the 
THRONE of the Lamb that was slain/^ before 
which the multitudes without number of the 
saved in heaven are represented as ascribing 
" power, and riches, and strength, and glory, 
and honor, and blessing." By His death He pur- 
chased, as Mediator, a glorious kingdom of re- 
demption. At His ascension He went to receive 
it. There now He reigns over all His people in 
earth and heaven, and over all else, for His 
people. When He shall come again, it will be in 
the glory of that kingdom. It was a grand in- 
troduction to that precious invitation, ^^ Come 
anto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden," 



38 TEE WORK OF PBEACEING GEBIST, 

and that attending precept, " Take my yoke, 
and learn of me/' when he said in the verse 
next before, " All things are delivered unto me 
of my Father. '^^'^ 

It was when He was in the humiHation and 
sufferings of the cross, that, as the great King, 
He stretched forth the sceptre of His power to 
the malefactor at His side, and gave him re- 
pentance and remission of sins, and opened 
unto him the kingdom of heaven. And now 
that, having endured the cross, He is set down 
at the right hand of the throne of God, to 
reign forever and ever. He hath all power 
to make good all His promises to those who 
receive Him, and to punish with everlasting 
destruction those who reject Him. There is 
no part of that ancient hymn of Christian praise, 
the Te Deum laudamus, that more lifts up 
the worship of the heart than these two sen- 
tences, ^^Thou art the King of Glory, Christ !'' 
^^ When Thou hadst overcome the sharpness of 
death, Thou didst open the kingdom of heaven 
to all believers.^' It is as King of Glory, that 
He freely receives every sinner who seeks His 
salvation, writing the law of His kingdom in 
his heart, giving him victory over the enemies 
of his soul, making him triumphant in death, 

* Matt. ix. 27. 



THE WOBK OF PRE AGEING CHRIST. 39 

and finally saying unto him from His throne, 
'^ Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord/^ It is 
as Christ crucified, and glorified, and ^^ King 
of Saints,'^ that He utters that promise of royal 
authority and power, *' To him that overcometh 
will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even 
as I also overcame and am set down with my 
Father in His throne.^' "^ 

Here, then, is another aspect in which we 
must lift up the Lord Jesus in our ministry. 
We must not let it be forgotten that, in all the 
tenderness of His invitations and promises, He 
speaks ^^ as one that hath authority,'' not only 
to make them good, but to punish their rejec- 
tion. The invitations of His grace are the 
commandments of His throne, to be answered 
for at His bar. Hence the preaching of Christ 
crucified, ceases not till it has exhibited ^' the 
judgment-seat of Christ.'' It must be noted 
that when the Apostle says, '' Knowing the 
terror of the Lord, we persuade men," he is 
speaking of the terror of our Lord Jesus in His 
day of judgment.f That day is called ^^ the 
great day of the wrath of the LawibP % Why 
the wrath of the Lamb? Why, but to keep 
still in view the great sacrifice of atonement ? 
to teach that Christ on the throne of judgment 

* Kev. iii. 21. f 2 Cor. v. 10, 11. % Kev. vi. 17. 



40 THE WORK OF PEE ACHING CHRIST. 

is Christ that was crucified? that the chief 
question of that day will be, whether we have 
accepted or neglected the great salvation pur- 
chased by His blood ; and the chief terror of 
that day will be the vengeance of that blood 
upon its rejection. While we love to speak 
of the blessedness of " the saints in light '^ as 
"joint heirs with Christ/' we cannot dis- 
charge our whole duty as preachers of Christ, 
unless we speak of the heritage of those who 
" receive His grace in vain.'' You have a 
most impressive example in St. Paul, who, 
knowing nothing in his ministry " but Jesus 
Christ and Him crucified,'' pictured so sol- 
emnly that day when, coming " to be glorified 
in His saints, and to be admired in all them 
that believe," the Lord Jesus " shall be re- 
vealed from heaven in flaming fire, taking 
vengeance on them that obey not the Gospel, 
who shall be punished with everlasting de- 
struction from the presence of the Lord and 
from the glory of His power." ^ 

But the preaching of Christ as the crucified, 
extends through all the inheritance of His peo- 
ple forever and ever. It deserves your partic- 
ular remark how carefully, in many places, the 
Scriptures, in speaking of the actual condition 

* 2 Thess. i. 7-10. 



THE WOBK OF PREACHING CHRIST, 41 

of the redeemed in heaven, and its connection 
with the Lord Jesus as its author, source, and 
substance, so speak of it as to keep not only 
Christ on the throne, but Christ crucified^ 
Christ the sacrificej in most conspicuous view. 
This is especially seen wherever He is spoken 
of in His glory as " the Lamhj^ which of course 
means the Lamb of sacrifice — the antitype of 
the paschal lamb and of the daily sacrifice of 
the law ; the fulfilment of Isaiah^s prophecy, 
'^He is led as a lamb to the slaughter,^^ 
^^ wounded for our transgressions.'^ Thus the 
multitude which no man can number, who 
stand in white raiment and with palms of vic- 
tory before the throne, are represented as 
'^ before the Lamb^ and their adoration is in as- 
cribing ^^ salvation to the Lamb^^ and notice is 
carefully drawn to their having " washed their 
robes in the blood of the Lamb^'^ and all that 
high communion and blessedness is called " the 
marriage-supper of the Lamhj^ and in all that 
dwelling-place '^ the Lamb is the light thereof ^^^ 
and He that " feeds them and leads them to liv- 
ing fountains of water '' is '' the Lamh which is 
in the midst of the throne," and ^^ the river of 
water of life," representing their whole felici- 
ty, proceeds " out of the throne of the Lamb^'' 
and the book of citizenship of the New Jeru- 



42 THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 

salem, in which are written the names of all 
that are to inhabit there, is " the book of life 
of the Lamb slain from the foundation of tlie 
worlds ^ Most evidently the intent of all this 
is to carry adoring thoughts of the sacrifice of 
the cross into our every thought of heavenly 
happiness, and to represent the heir of that 
felicity as never forgetting that great price ; 
never seeing the Lord in His glory without 
seeing Him as once " crucified and slain ; " 
never ascending any height of " the heavenly 
places/' or drinking at any stream of their 
blessedness, without seeing in Christ not only 
" the Author and the Finisher,'' but all in Him 
as ^- the Lamb slain/^ as He that '^ liveth and 
was deadj^ Christ the propitiation, Christ cru- 
cified. Atonement by sacrifice is written all 
over the heritage of the righteous. It is the 
chorus of every song of the saints in light. 
All heaven echoes with '^ Thou wast slain, and 
hast redeemed us to God by Thy bloodJ^ f So 
must it be in all our preaching concerning the 
happiness of the saved — Christ the purchaser 
and dispenser, but the glory of His cross nev- 
er separated from the glory of His throne. 
When we ^^ shall see Him as he is," we shall 
not cease to think of Him as he was. 

* Rev. xiii. 8 and xx. 12, 14. f Rev. v. 9. 



THE WORK OF PEE AG RING CHRIST. 43 

Here a word about our represeDtations of 
what is the happiness of the redeemed in 
heaven — what constitutes it. There is a chill- 
ing effect of many books and sermons on that 
subject — so much generality, so little about 
what the Scriptures place so above all; so 
much made of the subordinate and accessory 
features, the pastures and the flowers of the 
heavenly land, and so little of the Sun that 
gives them all their beauty and life ; as if you 
should speak of the garden of Eden, and make 
more of what God planted, than of the pres- 
ence and communion of God therein — not 
remembering what Paradise in all its beauty 
became to man when that communion was with- 
drawn. Christ is carefully to be preached, as 
being Himself, in His glory and communion, 
the heaven of His people ; as well as, in His 
humiliation and sacrifice, its purchase-price. 
How striking is the testimony of the Scrip- 
tures to this point ! Has Jesus gone away to 
prepare a place for us in His Father^s house ? 
His promise is, ^' I will come again, and re- 
ceive you unto myself, that where I am there 
ye may be also.'' Does He pray His Father in 
behalf of the happiness of His people ? The 
prayer is, ^^ that they may be with me where 
I am, and behold my glory.'' While it doth 



44 TEE WORK OF PEE ACHING V HEIST. 

not appear what we shall be " as sons of Grod " 
and "joint heirs with Christ/' St. John speaks 
of one thing that we do know. It is that 
" we shall be like Him, and see Him as He is.'' 
Does Jesiis promise to them that overcome, 
that they "shall eat of the hidden manna?" 
That manna is Himself. " I am that bread of 
life." Is heaven described as a glorious city 
of habitation ? " The Lamb is the tSmple/' 
and " the light thereof." Hath it a river of 
water of life, and on either side of the tree of 
life? All that river comes forth from "the 
throne of the Lamb." Christ is " the Finisher 
of our faith " in this, that He is, in Himself, the 
consummation of our hope ; His presence, His 
communion. His everlasting love being the 
prize of our high calling, and the goal of our 
race. We come to Him now, and He is our 
peace. We go to be with him forever, and He 
is our glory. Ask the way to heaven ; we 
say, Christ. Ask where heaven is ; we say, 
where Christ is. Ask what heaven is ; we an- 
swer, what Christ is. Thus preach we Christ 
crucified, whenever we speak according to 
the Scriptures of what constitutes the life 
eternal of the sinner, " redeemed by the blood 
of the Lamb." 

But we must take good heed that we do 



THE WORK OF FREACEING CHRIST. 45 

not so speak of our Lord in His heavenly 
power and glory, as not to give due place to 
His ever-present personal ministry, in and to 
His Church on earth. The impression is too 
prevalent that here, in our duties, and wants, 
and prayers, we have only a Saviour and 
Helper afar off. 

The precious assurance of the Scriptures is, 
that we have a Saviour so near to every one 
of us, that He is ^^a very present help^^ — so 
present that nothing can separate us from 
Him; that nothing but unbelief ever intervenes 
between our wants and His fullness, neither 
space nor time, nor unworthiness nor weak- 
ness — so present that He is ever at the door, 
waiting to be received, or beneath our 
weakness, ready to be leaned on. No pres- 
ence is so " very present '^ as that of the ever- 
living Christ, in the power of His Spirit to 
every heart that seeks Him — enlightening, 
guiding, comforting, upholding, drawing sin- 
ners to Himself, making Himself known to 
them, giving eflScacy to means of grace : what- 
ever the instruments. He the only power. " I 
am the G-ood Shepherd.'^ All is comprehended 
in that declaration. As the Good Shepherd, He 
is the present Shepherd ; so present to each of 
the flock, that He '' calleth every one by name. 



46 THE WORK OF PREAGHING CHRIST^ 

and leadeth him out.'' 0, what a help and 
comfort it is when we get a full comprehen- 
sion and an abiding impression of that living^ 
loving, all-powerful presence ! How it strength- 
ens the Minister of the Gospel ! How it lifts 
up the heart of the Christian I 

In this connection, the faithful preaching of 
Christ will keep in great prominence that as- 
pect of Himself which He, with such emphasis^ 
when He spake of Himself as '^ the living bread 
- — the bread of Ood,^^ of whom the manna in the 
wilderness was the type, and the bread of our 
Eucharist is the Sacrament ; Christ the pres- 
ent daily life of his people ; they abiding in 
Him by faith, He in them by His Spirit ; all 
their life as children of God now, all their 
hopes of life forever, depending on that habit- 
ual communion — the vine and the branches. 
The more we ourselves enjoy of that abiding, 
the better shall we know how to teach it. 
Nowhere does mere book-knowledge of what 
Is given us to preach assist us less. 

When we speak of Christ as " the life,'''' ful- 
filling the type of the manna, let us take care 
that we set in clear view, not only our depen- 
dence, but His freeness. It was one promi- 
nent aspect of that " spiritual meat,'' of which 
^'all our fathers" of the Church in the wil- 



THE WORK OF PEE ACHING CHRIST, ATI 

derness ate, that all classes and conditions of 
people partook of it alike, and all with equal 
and perfect freeness. It lay all around the 
camp, as a;ccessible to one as another. Moses, 
nor Aaron, nor any priest or ruler had any 
privilege at that table which the humblest 
Israelite had not. The priesthood had no office 
of intervention between the hungry and that 
bread. Whosoever willj let him take and eat, 
was the proclamation. Let us take good heed 
that what we cannot deny in the type,*be not 
narrowed or concealed in the antitype. Our 
text is, " Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise 
cast outJ^ ^ And I do not know a text that 
contains more of the essence of the preaching 
of Christ in the richness and freeness of his sal- 
vation. 0, let us take care that our ministry 
shall keep full in the sight of men that open 
way, that free access, that directness of com- 
ing, not to some mere symbolical representa- 
tion, but to the very present Christ, in all his 
tenderness of love and power to save. Ordi- 
nances, ministers, are sadly out of place, no mat- 
ter how divinely appointed for certain uses, 
when, instead of mere helps in coming to 
Christ, they are made, in any sense, condi- 
tions or terms of approach, so that the sinner 

♦ John vi. 37. 



48 THE WORK OF PRE AGEING QHRIST. 

gets to Christ only, or in any degree, by them. 
The light of the sun is not more free to every 
man that cometh into the world, than is the 
salvation of Jesus to every believing sinner. 
It is our business to be continually showing 
that precious truth ; coming by faith, all the 
condition — Christ, the full and perfect sal- 
vation of all that come. 

But in the range of Gospel truth, there are 
subjects of instruction, which, though not di- 
rectly concerning His person and office, are so 
connected with all right appreciation of His 
saving grace, that we cannot keep them out 
of view without affecting most injuriously 
our whole ministry. Be it remembered that 
while the cross, with its immediate neighbor- 
hood, is the metropolis of Christianity, all 
the region round about is Holy Land, more or 
less holy according to the nearness to that 
'^ city of our God ; '• ^^ a land of milk and 
honey,^' ^^ of brooks and fountains of water/' 
intersected in all directions with highways by 
which pilgrins to Zion approach the desire of 
their hearts. It is the office of the gospel 
preacher to map out that land ; to trace those 
converging roads; to set up the way-mark? 
to the city of Refuge. Christ is not fullj 
preached, when any truth which teaches the 



THE WOBK OF PBEAGEING GHBIST. 49 

sinner's need of such a Saviour, illustrating 
His preciousness by showing our ruin and 
beggary through sin dwelling in us, and bring- 
ing condemnation upon us, is kept in obscu- 
rity. The wisdom of ^^ the scribe, instructed 
unto the kingdom of God to bring out of his 
treasure things new and old,'' is found in his 
omitting nothing connected with the Gospel, 
however remote from the great central truths 
and duties ; and in his giving to each its por- 
tion in due season, as well as its place in due 
relation. 

For example : Christ is our ^^ righteousness^^ 
unto justification to every one that believeth, 
so that in Him there is no condemnation.*^ But 
we shall preach Him in vain, in that light, un- 
less we show the sinner's absolute need of 
such righteousness. We must seek, under the 
power of the Holy Ghost, so to convince him 
of sin that he shall see himself to be under the 
condemnation of God's law, without excuse 
and without hope, till he flies to that refuge. 
Blessed is he whose ministry the Spirit em- 
ploys to teach that lesson of ruin and beggary. 
It is the threshold of the way of life. The 
text-book in that teaching is the law — God's 
will, as our rule of life, however and where- 

* Romans viii. 1. 

4 



50 THE WORK OF PBEAGHING CHRIST. 

ever expressed. Preached in a spiritual appli- 
cation to the secrets of the heart, not only as 
the rule of obedience, but as the condition of 
peace with God to every one that is 7iot in 
Christ Jesus, and on the perfect keeping of 
which all his hope depends, — preached in view 
- of the salvation of Jesus as only increasing the 
condemnation so long as it is salvation neg- 
lected, — it is the instrument of the Holy Ghost 
to strip the sinner of self-reliance and self- 
justification, to humble him before God under 
a sense of guilt and ruin, and as a ^* school- 
master to lead him to Christ, that he may be 
justified by faith.'' He that would preach a 
full justification in Christ, without works, must 
preach entire condemnation under the law, by 
works. By the law is the knowledge of sin, 
and hence the knowledge in part of Christ. 
Clear, unequivocal statements of the divine 
law ; the full exhibition of the text, ^^ Cursed 
is every one that continueth not in all things 
written in the booh of the law to do them " (that 
continueth not in all things from first to last 
of life), thus carrying the sword of the Spirit 
into the discerning of the thoughts and intents 
of the heart, is the special basis of, and prep- 
aration for, all saving knowledge of Christ. 
The way of the Lord is prepared by that fore- 



THE WORK OF PBEACHING CHRIST. 51 

runner. How manj^ more consciences would 
cry out for relief under the load of sin, how 
much oftener would the careless heart be 
awakened to seek mercy through Christ, were 
there only a more searching "comparison of all 
that is in man with all the holiness of the will 
of God ! 

Again: Christ is ''made unto us saiidifi- 
cationJ^"^ But how can we do justice to so 
cardinal a truth of God's grace, unless we do 
ample justice to that other great truth of man's 
nature out of which arises all the need of a 
Sanctifier — the entire " corruption of the na- 
ture of every man that is naturally engendered 
of the offspring of Adam''? f The beginning of 
sanctification is to be born again of the Holy 
Ghost. According to men's views of the ex- 
tent to which by nature they are corrupt and 
alienated from God, will be their views of the 
spiritual nature, necessity, and extent of that 
great change. Hence, to preach Christ in 
sanctification, we must preach man in his nat- 
ural corruption. The '^ carnal mind^^ i^'^ enmi- 
ty against God, and is not subject to the law of 
Godj neither indeed can 6e." X Let us faithfully 

* 1 Cor. i. 30. 

t Article IX. of the Protestant Episcopal Church. 

X Rom. viii. 7. 



52 TEE WOEK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 

expound those words of St. Paul. We need 
no stronger declaration as the basis of the 
whole superstructure of the need of an entire 
inward regeneration, making the sinner a new 
creature in Christ Jesus — new in heart, new 
in life and hope. That this preaching of the 
necessity of such new creature is eminently 
the preaching of Christ, we have a striking 
testimony in these words of the Epistle of the 
Ephesians (chap. iv. 20-24): "Ye have not so 
learned Christ ; if so be ye have heard Him, and 
been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus ; 
that ye put off the old man, which is corrupt 
according to the deceitful lusts, and be re- 
newed in the spirit of your mind; and that 
ye put on the new man, which after God is 
created in righteousness and true holiness.'' 

But how shall we speak of so great spiritual 
transformation, without speaking with equal 
stress of Him who produces it? What sanc- 
tification is to salvation, such is the riglit 
teaching of the power and office of the Holy 
Ghost, the Sanctifier, the Spirit of Christ, and 
all-comprehending gift of God. What is there 
in the Christian life, from first to last, that is 
not the work of the Holy Ghost? Is the sin- 
ner convinced of sin? Jesus sent the Spirit to 
do that work. Is he quickened from spiritual 



THE WOBK OF PEE ACHING CHRIST. 53 

death? ^^ It is the Spirit that quickenethJ^ Is 
he born again? He is '^horn of the Spirits 
Is he spiritually-minded? It is because he 
" minds the things of the Spirit.''^ Is he a ''■ fol- 
lower of God/' as a dear child ? It is because 
he is ^^ led hy the Spirit of GodP Hath he an 
internal evidence of that sonship? It is be- 
cause '''- the Spirit heareth icitness with his spirits 
Is the love of God " shed abroad in our hearts '^ ? 
It is ^^by the Holy Ghost given unto usJ^ Do 
we learn how to pray as we ought ? It is be- 
cause " the Spirit helpeth our infirmities^^ Are 
we comforted with the consolation of Christ ? 
The Spirit is ^^the Comforter ^ Are we strength- 
ened in our duty ? It is ^^ by the Sjnrit in the 
imier manP Do we grow in the knowledge of 
Christ ? Jesus said of the Holy Ghost, ^^ He 
shall take of mine and show it unto you^ And 
beside the spiritual resurrection and sanctifica- 
tion, will these vile bodies also rise ? will they 
also be sanctified and made glorious according 
to the glory of our risen Lord ? It is written 
that " He shall quicken your mortal bodies by 
His Spirit that dwelleth in youP ^ 

Rightly to honor the Holy Ghost as He is 
thus revealed in His own inspired word, — how 
important to the faithfulness and fruitfulness 
* Rom. viii. 11. 



54 THE WORK OF PBEAGHING CUBIST, 

of our ministry ! We may so come short of 
it, we may so contradict it, that while bear- 
ing a very reputable character before men, 
we may all the while be " grieving the Holy 
Ghost/' yea, even ^^ resisting the Holy Ghost/' 
How much barrenness in the work of the min- 
istry in making, not more church-members, 
but spiritually-enlightened and spiritually- 
minded followers of Christ, may be ascribed to 
deficiency — negativeness at least, in this great 
department of our teaching ! In no part of 
his work does a minister more need to be 
taught of God, or to sit humbly at the feet of 
Jesus to learn of him ; nowhere does a decline 
of spirituality of mind so soon show itself as 
here. In no part of our work do we depend 
more upon a decided, habitual, personal ex- 
perience in our own souls of God's gracious 
operation. It is here that great departures 
from the truth, which go on to carry away 
eventually whole communities of professing 
Christians into manifold and essential errors, 
almost always secretly or overtly begin ; as it 
is the final construction of a system from which 
the personal office of the Holy Ghost is virtu- 
ally, if not professedly, excluded, in which they 
culminate. The scriptural description of a 
spiritual mind is, that it " minds the things of 



THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 55 

the Spirit.'' It is equally the test of a spirit- 
ual and evangelical ministry. That which 
specially tries our spiritual discernment and 
skill in rightly dividing the word of truth, is 
the right adjustment of means of grace in their 
relation to the power of grace, of instruments 
of blessing to the hand that employs them, and 
that gives them all their efficacy. The Spirit 
hath His instruments. His grace hath its 
means. His great instrument in our sanctifi- 
cation is His own revealed Truth, by which He 
testifies of, and glorifies the Lord Jesus, in 
our eyes. Sacraments are that same essential 
truth, taught under other signs, and sealed 
with a special impressiveness. The preach- 
ing of that same truth by an ordained ministry, 
is the great instrumentality of the Spirit. The 
point of caution is, while giving all due place 
to the instrument, that we keep it exclusively 
in the place of a mere instrument — of no avail 
in itself; that we treat it as we treat the glass 
by which we seek to see some distant star — 
not as an object to be looked at, but only as 
a Help to look immeasurably beyond and above 
it; that as the glass is nothing without the 
light, so the means of grace are nothing with 
out '^ the Spirit of grace ; '' that all the power 
is of the Holy Ghost, and that power not de- 



56 THE WOBK OF PEEAQHING GEBIST. 

posited in the means, as we put bread into 
the hand of a distributor, so that whosoever re- 
ceives the latter receives the bread ; that power 
never divorced from the personal ministrj^- of 
the Spirit, but applied directly by Himself to 
each heart that receives His grace, He '^divid- 
ing to every man severally as He will/' To 
speak of an ordinance, a sacrament, any means 
of grace, even the Holy Scriptures of truth, as 
if they were in any sense the power unto sal- 
vation, or as if they contained^ whatever its 
original source, the grace by which Ave live 
unto God, thus leading men to look to them, 
instead of only, by their help, to Christ and 
His Spirit, is to ^^ do despite to the Spirit of 
grace.'' 

The whole truth in this connection is found 
where the Apostle says, "Who is Paul, and who 
is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, 
even as the Lord gave to every many ^ In- 
stead of Paul and Apollos, read any ordinance 
or means of grace. What are they bub min- 
istrations of man by help of which ye believe, 
even as the Lord giveth to every man ? 

There is a text which the full and explicit 
preaching of Christ will be always directly 
or indirectly, consciously or unconsciously, 

* 1 Cor. iii. 5. 



TEE WOBK OF PREACHING OEBIST. 57 

illustrating. It is those verses in the sec- 
ond chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians, 
" By grace are ye saved, through faith ; and 
that not of yourselves : it is the gift of G-od: 
not of works, lest any man should boast. For 
we are His workmanship, created in Christ 
Jesus unto good works.'' Salvation all of 
grace only ; in its origin in the love of God ; 
in its purchase by the blood of Christ ; in the 
first quickening of the sinner from the death 
of sin ; in all the renewal of his nature ; in his 
acceptance through Christ, to the peace of 
God ; in his whole ability to live as a child of 
God ; and in his final admission to the glory 
of God — all of grace only — wonderful grace ! 
— but through faith alone, and that faith itself 
a gift of grace ; our works in every degree 
and aspect wholly excluded from the work of 
saving us, though necessarily included as fruits 
of the grace that does save us — we being 
created anew in Christ Jesus unto good works, 
and not in any degree by good works ; first 
God's workmanship making us new creatures, 
then our working as so created ^^ unto good 
works which God hath ordained that we should 
walk in them." We preach such works, ^rs^, 
as absolutely excluded from having any part 
in procuring our Justification before God; 



58 TEE WORK OF FEE ACHING CHRIST. 

secondly, as essential fruits and evidences of 
our having obtained such Justification. We 
preach the office of Faith as so vital that only 
by it are we united to Christ, as living stones 
built upon the living head of the corner ; and 
the necessity of good works as so absolute, 
that only in them can we walk as God hath 
ordainedj and have evidence that we are true 
believers in Jesus ; and at the same time both 
faith and works deriving all being from the 
Spirit of God, and all value and efficacy to sal- 
vation from the Righteousness of Christ. 

Here let me add some few miscellaneous 
observations. We are bound to instruct the 
believer in all the privileges and consolations 
that are in Christ, that his joy may be full. 
But we must lay equal stress on all his obliga- 
tions, that Christ may be glorified. Out of 
the same wounds of the cross come privilege 
and duty, promise and commandment, the con- 
solation of faith and the duty of obedience : 
and the same preaching that leads to the one 
must alike insist on the other, and on both as 
necessary to our having that rest which Jesus 
promises. It is a great matter so to preach 
the precepts of Christ as to lead men to em- 
brace His promises ; and so the promises as to 
draw the disobedient to the love of his pre- 



TEE WOBK OF PEEACHING CEEIST. 59 

cepts. In all our work we have two great 
sources of persuasion, according to the example 
of St. Paul; namely, ^^ We beseech you by the 
mercies of God/' and again, " Knowing the ter- 
ror of the Lord, we persuade men ; ^' the love 
of God in Christ as a Saviour, and the wrath 
of God in Christ as Judge of quick and dead ; 
a cloud of light and a cloud of darkness, each 
proceeding from the cross as accepted or re- 
jected. We must do all in tenderness, but all 
in faithfulness. The whole counsel of God 
embraces the fearful penalty of unpardoned sin 
as well as the glorious inheritance of the recon- 
ciled in Christ. The faithful preacher of Christ 
keeps back none of it. While he delights in 
the loving aspects of His grace, he is not 
ashamed of the severities of His justice. He 
does not, indeed, denounce or judge. It is not 
for him to command or condemn. His work is 
always to entreat and persuade ; tenderly, 
lovingly, patiently, in the mind of Christ. But 
persuasion has the alarming truths to use as 
well as the encouraging. That '^ God is a con- 
Sliming fire^^^ out of Christ, is as much an argu- 
ment of persuasion and tenderness, as that in 
Christ, ^* God is Love.'' We read of " the good- 
ness and severity of QodJ^ ^ We must exhibit 
* Kom. xi. 22. 



60 THE WORK OF PREAGHING CHRIST. 

both. They interpret and enforce one another. 
But how to balance aright judgment and mer- 
cy, invitation and warning, precepts of obedi- 
ence and promises of consolation, the tender 
" Come unto me, and I will give you rest,^' with 
the stern '' Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting 
jfire; '' the darkness and the light — the loving 
voice from the Mercy-seat and the dreadful 
sentence from the Judgment-seat — all under 
the duty of teaching and preaching Jesus 
Christ, is not learned from books only, is not 
given by specific rule, but comes chiefly out of 
the state of the heart, under the general light 
of the Scriptures, and by a careful endeavor 
to learn of, and be like. Him, of whom it is 
beautifully written, that He hath '' the tongue 
of the learned, to know how to speak a word 
in season to him that is weary.'' ^ 

From all that has now been said, it appears 
how mistaken is the idea that by confining our 
preaching to Christ and Him crucified we have 
a very narrow range of truth to expatiate in. 
In reality, we have the whole vast range of 
natural and revealed religion. A wider field 
no preacher can find who does not seek it be- 
yond the confines of religious truth. The dif- 
ference between the man who confines himself 

* Isaiah 1. 4. 



THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST, 61 

to the preaching of Christ and him who does 
not, need not be that the latter embraces any 
portion of divine truth — of doctrine or duty, 
of history or prophecy or precept, which enters 
not into the range of the former. It may be 
wholly a difference in the mode of presenting 
precisely -the same truth — a difference in the 
bearings; in the relations assigned to every 
part; in the cardinal points to which all is ad- 
justed; in the polarity j so to speak, which 
governs such manifestation of truth as de- 
serves the name and praise of the preaching 
of Christ. You may take truth from the im- 
mediate neighborhood of the cross, or from the 
farthest boundaries of the domain of Christian- 
ity, and when its just relation to Christ and 
His redemption is exhibited Christ is preached. 
Thus there is no reason why, in the most faith- 
ful ministry, there may not be abundant varietj^ 
of topic and of instruction. The sermon may 
be always shining in the light of our glorious 
Lord, while receiving it either by direct look- 
ing unto Him, or indirectly from secondary ob- 
jects, which, as satellites of the sun, revolve 
around Him and shine in His glory. The ser- 
mon, in all its spirit and tendency, may say, 
^^ Beliold the Lamb of God^'' and yet the view 
may be as changing as the positions from which 



62 THE WOBK OF PBEACHING CHBIST. 

it is taken, the circumstances which influence 
it, the lights and shadows of the several con- 
ditions and necessities of the minds before 
which it is placed. In general, we may say, 
that as no subject is legitimate in the preach- 
ing of a minister of Christ that does not admit 
of being presented in some important relation 
to Christ, so no sermon is evangelical that 
does not truly exhibit such relation, giving 
Him the same position to the whole discourse 
that He holds in the Scriptures to the whole 
body of truth therein. As some subjects have 
a much nearer and more vital relation to Him 
than others, they will be much the most fre- 
quent and engrossing in the preaching of a 
faithful Christian minister. The great truths, 
the great facts, the great duties, and privileges, 
and interests, and consolations which proceed 
the most directly from the person and office, 
the death and intercession of Christ, and the 
work of the Holy Spirit, as well as those 
which lead the most immediately thereto, will 
be so habitually the subjects of his preaching, 
that the more remote and indirect will be only 
occasional exceptions to the standing rule and 
habit. And which of these classes of subjects 
his mind and heart most delight in, and which 
draws forth the deepest earnestness and the 



THE WOBK OF PBEACHING CEBIST. 63 

strongest emotions of his soul, will not be 
doubtful. 

I have now exhibited as much of this great 
and wide subject as I could, with any propriety, 
occupy your time with. You will, of course, 
understand that I have not attempted to em- 
brace the whole field. What has been at- 
tempted, I am deeply conscious is most imper- 
fect and inadequate. Still I have not withheld 
my best endeavors where even St. Paul ex- 
claimed, " WIio is sufficient for these things ! '' 
I conclude with a brief view of the state of 
mind and spirit which qualifies a minister to 
be a faithful preacher of Christ. 

1. A spirit of Faith. I mean Faith, not mere- 
ly in such of its exercises as make the minister 
a living Christian, and a growing, vigorous 
Christian, but in that special exercise which 
enables him to go on patiently, persistently, 
hopefully, immovably, preaching the Gospel as 
w^e have seen the Apostles preached it, in like 
simplicity and spirituality — with as little of 
the devices, and mixtures, and dilutions, and 
subterfuges of man's wisdom, no matter what 
the obstacles or what the apparent fruitless- 
ness — believing it is God's own way, to which 
alone His blessing is promised, and which He 
will bless as His own " wisdom and power unto 



64 THE WOBK OF PRE AG RING CHRIST, 

salvation. '^ It was precisely with such mean- 
ing that St. Paul, just after he had pronounced, 
'^ We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus 
the Lord,'^ and just after he had adverted 
to the fact that such preaching failed to open 
the eyes of many that heard, saying. " If our 
Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, 
in whom the god of this world hath blinded the 
minds of them which believe not,'' "^ — it was 
in full view of all whom their preaching did 
not succeed in convincing, but only made the 
more hardened and hopeless, ttiaf he said, 
" We believe, and therefore speak/^ f meaning 
not only that they believed what they spoke, 
but that they believed it was just what God 
commanded them to speak, and they realized 
its unspeakable importance and preciousness 
to the souls of men. And no rejection of it 
by man could shake that confidence, or lead 
them to speak any thing else, or in any other 
way. Well they knew what a '^ stumbling- 
block to the Jew,'' and what utter ^^ foolishness 
to the Greek," was their testimony concerning 
Christ crucified ; but not a word would they 
change — ^' We believej and therefore speaks 

It was this lesson of faith that Paul gave to 
Timothy. He warned him of a time of apos- 

* 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4. t v- 13. 



THE WORK OF PREACHING CHRIST. 65 

, tasy approaching. ^^ The thue will come 
when they will not endure sound doctrine ; 
and they shall turn away their ears from the 
truth, and be turned unto fables.^' "^ How 
then was Timothy to do in such times ? What 
" sound doctrine '' meant in the mind of St 
Paul, we well know — all that way of justifica- 
tion by the righteousness of Christ imputed 
and of sanctification by the Spirit of God im- 
parted, to the believer ; that whole way of life 
of which the vicarious propitiation by the sac- 
rifice of Christ was the central power and life 
It was all that doctrine which men would not 
endure. And what was Timothy to do ? Was 
he to conclude that he, and other preachers 
of Christ, had taken the wrong method be- 
cause it was thus unsuccessful? that they 
must find out some other sort of preaching 
because that was so rejected? Since men 
would not endure sound doctrine, must they 
try to get them into the church, or if in the 
church already, to make them satisfied to stay 
there by giving them unsound doctrine ? If 
the truth caused the carnal mind^s enmity 
against God to turn away from it, must they 
turn away from the truth, and give them an- 
other Gospel? What said the faith of an 

♦ 2 Tim. iv. 3, 4. 

5 



66 TEE WOBK OF PEEACEING CHRIST. 

apostle ? No compromise — no accommoda- 
tion — only so much more earnestly and con- 
tinually that same rejected doctrine. Hear 
Paul's remedy ! ^^ I charge thee, before God 
and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the 
quick and the dead at His appearing and His 
kingdom — preach the word {the same offen- 
sive word), be instant in season, out of sea- 
son — reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long- 
suffering and doctrine/' "^ The more the 
truth is turned away from, so much the more 
proclaim it. God will see to the issue. " So 
we preach, not as pleasing men, but God 
which trieth the heart.'' Such is the faith of 
which we are speaking, as of such importance 
in our ministry. 

The times which St. Paul predicted, and 
which began before Timothy had ended his 
labors, are yet in being. We all know how 
they have been exhibited since the beginning 
of this century, both in this country and in 
Europe, under the form of Unitarianism and 
Rationalism. It is the old demand : ^^ Tlie 
Greeks seek after wisdomJ^ And we must meet 
it with the old satisfaction: We preach Christ 
crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, 
and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto 

* 2 Tim. iv. 1, 2. 



THE WOBK OF PBEACHING CHRIST. 67 

them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, 
Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of 
God.''^ 

The atonement is the great offence — that 
one perfect and sufficient oblation and satis- 
faction for sin, in the death and sacrifice of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, perfect God and per- 
fect man in the unity of His divine person, 
and in the bearing of our iniquities ; being 
" made a curse for us '^ under the sentence of 
the law, of which our sin is the transgression. 
— that atonement embraced and made avail- 
ing to each man^s salvation through a living 
faith, and equally accessible and efficacious to 
all that do thus believe in the Lord Jesus, 
whether the wise or the unwise, the great or 
the despised, the chief of sinners or those 
much less sinful, so that in this respect there 
is no difference, because " all have sinned/' 
Tliat atonement, with all the branches of truth 
and duty, of privilege and responsibility, which 
reside therein and depend therefrom, and 
which lose all place, and life, and value the 
moment that True Vine is taken away — that 
is the offence. That is the ^' sound doctrine '^ 
which the wisdom of this world cannot en- 
dure ; for which it labors to find a substitute, 

* 1 Cor. i. 22-24. 



68 TEE WORK OF PREACHmG CHBIST, 

and to get rid of which the inspiration of the 
Scriptures is so fought against, lest men should 
be obliged to take them as a final Rule of 
Faith and Life. 

Now when this is the case, what course 
must a faithful minister of Christ adopt ? I ask 
the question to illustrate the faith of which I 
am speaking: " We believe, and therefore speak J^ 
Must we, may we preach the word, as Paul un- 
derstood and preached it, one whit the less 
plainly, simply, boldly, with more of the en- 
ticing words of man's wisdom, in order the 
more to please men, and in that degree the less 
to approve ourselves unto God whose messen- 
gers we are, and whose message we have no 
permission to change, to dilute, to interpolate, 
or to conceal ? Shall we suppose that to preach 
Christ, as the Apostles did, is not as much now, 
and as exclusively, " the wisdom and power of 
God,'' as it was when they preached? Or 
shall we believe as they believed, and therefore 
speak as they spake, to all people, and with 
all perseverance, and prayer, and boldness, 
though the whole earth be drowned in unbe- 
lief, and men everywhere be turned unto 
fables? What is the answer of a true faith in 
God? No change, no dilution, no compro- 
mise, — no progress but in the line of the 



THE WOBK OF PBEAGEING CHBIST, 69 

more close following of the Apostles, in spirit, 
in faith, in purity, in simplicity. The old ex- 
hortation still sounds aloud through the 
Church, and will to the end — "Preach the 
Word,'' the same old Word — instant in sea- 
son, and so " do the work of an evangelist, and 
make full proof of thy ministry/' If the 
time has come when men will not endure that 
Word, and will turn away from that truth, the 
time will come to every faithful, patient, 
earnest, loving, believing minister thereof, 
when the hearts of the disobedient shall, un- 
der the power of God, be turned unto the wis- 
dom of the Just, and they that sat in darkness 
and spiritual death, without hope, shall come 
to the light of life in Christ Jesus, and being 
made new creatures in Him, shall count all 
things but loss for the excellency of the 
knowledge of His great salvation. ^ 

Let patience have her perfect work. Be 
not faithless, but believing. God's hand is 
not shortened that it cannot save by that same 
word now as in the ancient times. 

2. But to preach Christ is not only " a work 
of faith," it is " a labor of love." I will not say 
that no man can do it in a certain sense, that 
is, with doctrinal correctness, without the love 

* 2 Tim. iv. 2-5. 



70 THE WOBK OF PBEACHING CHRIST. 

of Christ in his heart ; for St. Paul speaks of 
some in his day who preached Christ, '' even 
of envy and strife, not sincerely/' from selfish 
and evil motives. I will not prolong this ad- 
dress in enlarging on the elementary truth, 
that without a personal experience of the 
preciousness of Christ to our own souls, by 
each one's individual participation in the hope 
that rests on His justifying righteousness, and 
is witnessed by the sanctifying power of His 
Spirit dwelling in us, we cannot preach Christ, 
according to His will, in His mind, in the ten- 
derness, and earnestness, and patience, and 
godly wisdom, which alone become His min- 
istry, however correct our teaching in a mere 
doctrinal aspect. What I wish, in these con- 
cluding words to insist on, is, the importance 
of a very earnest, tender, and overcoming love, 
to give living religion to our theology, and the 
mind of Christ to our teachings concerning 
Him. Two preachers, alike in accurate and 
full statement of all that is revealed concern- 
ing our blessed Lord and His Salvation, may 
be very different in the spiritual power of 
their ministry, and the difference will not de- 
pend so much on the superiority of talent or 
of eloquence, or even of diligence in one over 
the other, as on their comparison in point of 



THE WORK OF PBE AGEING CEBIST. 71 

love. He will preach best who loves most. 
His preaching will .go most to the heart, and 
will be attended with most of ^^ the demonstra- 
tion of the Spirit," who, in all he says and 
does, is most constrained by the love of 
Christ dictating, animating, sanctifying, with 
the tenderness and patient earnestness of his 
Master^s mind, his whole discourse. Oh, that 
we were more earnest to grow in this grace ! 
What ought we to value in personal attain- 
ment compared with it? If you shall attain 
to the ministry, and find it fail in spiritual 
eflScacy, inquire into the cause, by searching 
the state of your hearts in regard to the love 
of Christ therein, to what extent the aim, the 
zeal, the topics, the temper of your work, and 
the whole character of your personal example, 
are under the dominion of that love. 

But I have already occupied too much of 
your time, and yet I feel that I have come 
very far short of the height and breadth of 
what I have sought to exhibit. "We have 
this treasure in earthen vessels, that the ex- 
cellency of the power may be of God and not of 
us." Blessed be G-od, that in our weaknes we 
have His power to lean on. I humbly pray that 
power of God to bless to you, my dear broth- 
er, what in so much weakness, and imperfect- 



72 THE WOBK OF PREACHING CHBIST, 

ness, and unworthiness I have now addressed 
to you. Nothing in this world could I rejoice 
in so much as to be instrumental, under God^s 
grace, in promoting the spiritual excellency 
and efficacy of your future work and your 
personal growth in the faith and love of 
Christ. The time is at hand when nothing 
else will seem of the smallest value. I com- 
mend you to God, and to the word of His grace, 
which is able to build you up, and make you 
good stewards of the unsearchable riches of 
Christ. " The God of peace, who brought 
again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that 
great Shepherd of the sheep, through the 
blood of the everlasting covenant, make you 
perfect in every good work to do His will, 
working in you that which is well pleasing in 
His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be 
glory and dominion forever and ever.'' Amen. 

Such is the prayer of your friend and 
brother in the Gospel of Christ. 

Charles Pettit McIlvaine, 

Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church 
in the Diocese of Ohio, 



CHOICE BOOKS AND TRACTS 

Imported and Sold 

BY THE 

GOSPEL BOOK AITD TRACT 

nDEFOSITODR-'Sr, 
No. 2 Hamilton Place, 

NOTES ON THE BOOK OF GENESIS. 

By C. H. McIntosh, London. 

All who love and relish the simple g-ospel of the grace of 
God will be delighted with this book. To Christ's servants 
in the Gospel, sound forcible statements as to what sin is, 
and what grace is, are deeply valuable in the present time, 
when so much that is merely superficial is abroad. 

NOTES ON THE BOOK OF EXODUS. 

By C. H. McIntosh. 

Redemption by blood occupies a prominent place in Exodus. 
It characterizes the book. God's many mercies to his re- 
deemed in the display of his power, the patience of his love, 
and the riches of his grace flow from it. Many readers will 
be surprised at the amount of gospel truth found in this book. 

NOTES ON THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS. 

By C. H. McIntosh, London. 

** Very many who for years looked upon the Book of Leviti- 
cus as little more than a dry catalogue of Jewish ordinances, 
are now discovering in it an exhaustless mine of spiritual 
wealth, for which they cannot be too thankful." They have 
brought its marvellous pages under the light of the New Tes- 
tament Scriptures, and then can only wonder at that which is 
now unfolded to their gaze. 



Gospel Books and Tracts, 



NOTES ON THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 

By C. H. McIntosh, London. 

" The Book of Numbers may be regarded as a perpetual 
memorial of Jehovah's patient, tender, and unwearied care of 
His murmuring- and rebellious people. It is emphatically a 
wilderness book, and characterized by journeyings, service, 
and all the viscissitudes of wilderness life. As such, it is 
deeply interesting, most instructive, and easily applied to the 
Christian in this^ present evil world." The first thing that 
attracts our attention in reading the book is sweet and precious 
to the heart beyond expression. 

God has His'people numbered and gathered around Himself. 
He dwelt in the camp. " In the midst whereof IdwelV^ 



NOTES AND REFLECTIONS 

ON THE EPISTLES TO THE EOMANS, EPHESIANS, 
AND HEBREWS. 
By Arthur Pridham. 
" Sound, enlightening, and edifying." — Christian Witness, 
" A great amount of most precious truth and able criticism.^ 
The Epistle to the Romans contains the foundation truth of 
Justification by Faith, and also elucidates the dispensational 
dealings of God in connection with the Jew^ the Gentile, and 
the Church of God. 

The Epistle to the Ephesians reveals God's eternal purpose 
concerning the Churchy her present place of power and re- 
sponsibility, and her glorious future. 

The Epistle to the Hebrews contrasts the present with the 
past dispensation, and unfolds the glorious high-priesthood of 
the Lord Jesus Christ. 

♦ 

AN EXPOSITION OF THE TABERNACLE, 

THE PRIESTLY GAR:SIENTS, AND THE PRIESTHOOD. 

By H. W. Soltan. 

" Mr. Soltan has produced no ordinary book. There is as 
much real thought in any page of it as can be found in a vol- 
ume of some of the ' popular ' religious authors of the day." 
— Coleraine Chronicle. 



CHRIST OUR STRENGTH. 

Affectionately addressed to every believer in Christ. 
" This is a pretty little 3"2mo of fifty-two pages, but a very 
gem. It is worth its weight in gold. It has a heart-aspiring, 
soul-cheering, Christ-exalting tendency." — Gospel Magazine. 



Gospel Books and Tracts, 



THE SOUL AND ITS DIFFICULTIES; 

OR, A WORD TO THE ANXIOUS. 
By H. W. SOLTAN. {Fortieth Thousand.) 

" Very admirable. Clear as a sunbeam in its teachings. It 
should be given away by thousands." — Coleraine Chronicle. 

" We do not know how to speak in commendation of this 
little book. Many a once anxious, but now happy soul knows 
how sweet it is." 

— ^ 

FEATHERS FOR ARROWS. 

By C. H. Spurgeon. 

My aim has not been to amuse the reader, but to furnish 
Feathers for Arrows for the servants of Christ Jesus. — 
Extract from Preface, 

THE LAW OF THE OFFERINGS, 

CONSIDERED AS THE APPOINTED FIGURE OF THE 
VARIOUS ASPECTS OF THE OFFERING OF THE 
BODY OF JESUS CHRIST. 

By Andrew Jukes. 

*' We see from the writings of St. Paul, not only how closely 
these emblems are connected with Christ, but also how aptly 
they illustrate, in simplest figures, the wondrous truths and 
profound mysteries of redemption." 



GOD'S WAY OF PEACE. 

By Rev. Horatius Bonar, D. D. 

"The best book for the anxious ever written." — Revival 
Truth, 

ON WORSHIP. 
By Rev. J. L. Harris, D. D. 

CONTENTS. 
The Worshippers once Purg-ed. 
Boldness to enter into the Holiest. 
Drawing- near to God. 
The Priesthood and the Law Changed. 
A Minister of tlie Sanctuary. 
A Wordiy Sanctuary. 
A Hi'jh Priest of Good Things to Come. 



Gospel Books and Tracts. 



LAW AND GRACE. 

Notes of Lectures on the Epistle to the Galatians. 
By Kev. J. L. Harris, D. D. 

THE SCHOOL OF GOD. 
By Eev. J. L. Harris, D. D. 

— ♦— 

THE PROGRESS OF DOCTRINE IN THE 

NEW TESTAMENT. 

By Thomas Delany Bernard, M. A., of Exeter College, 

England. 

<* As nearly perfect, both in substance and form, as any 

human production can well be made. 

" The language in which these lectures are presented is clear 
as crystal, revealing every thought and shade of thought with 
absolute distinctness. 
*' Not a dark or dull sentence in the volume. 
" I have rarely perused a more attractive or instructive 
work, and I do not hesitate to pronounce it one of the best 
fruits of biblical study in modern times." 

REV. ALVAH HOVEY, D. D. 

Newton Theological Institution. 



IMMEDIATE SALVATION FOR THE CHIEF 

OF SINNERS. 
A Practical Guide for Anxious Inquirers. By Rev. James 
Gall, Edinburgh. 



NOVUM TESTAMENTUM GRAECE. 

Edidit 

Car. G. Guilielmus Theile. 

Accedit 

Appendix Tischendorfii de Codice Sinaitico. Lipsiae. 



NOVUM TESTAMENTUM GRAECE. 

Recensuit 

CONSTAl^TINUS TiSCHENDORF. 



BIBLICA HEBRAICA. 

Recensuit 

Augustus Hahn. 

Editio Stereotypa. C. Tauchnitz. Lipsiae. 



Gospel Books and Tracts. 



VETUS TESTAMENTUM GRAECE, 

Secundum Septuaginta Interpretes. 
Cura et Studio Leandri Van Ess. Lipsiae. 

GLEANINGS AMONG THE SHEAVES. 

By Rev. C. H. Spurgeon. 
The stems grow up every week. 
The shocks appear once a month. 
The sheaves are bound together once a year. 



TWELVE FAVORITE SERMONS FOR THE 

CLOSET OR SICK ROOM. 

By Rev. J. W. Alexander, D. D., Rev. James Hervey, Jo- 
seph Alleine, Rev. John Ker, Glasgow, Bishop Beveredge, 
Archbishop Leighton, President Davies, Rev. Jphn Newton, 
Rev. Andrew Fuller, Stephen Tyng, D. D., Alexander Vinet, 
D. D. 

THE OLD GOSPEL WAY, 

OR THE MARROW OF WHAT OLD DIVINES HAVE 
SAID UPON THE GOSPEL. 



READINGS FOR THE SICK ROOM, 

FOR INSTRUCTION, COUNSEL, AND COMFORT IN 

THE HOURS OF WEAKNESS AND SUFFERING. 

** There is no human composition better adapted than this 
for giving to the afflicted, and we believe it will be circulated 
in tens of thousands." — British Herald. 



ISRAELIS FUTURE. 

LOCK CHAPEL LECTURES. 

By Rev. Capel Molyneux, Minister of the Chapel. 

" It is not ingenuity of system, nor plausibility of theory, 

nor beauty of illustration, nor even apparent consistency of 

interpretation, but manifest agreement with the zvritten word 

of God^ and nothing else, that determines the worth of an 

exposition, or entitles it to our credit." — Extract from 

Preface, 

MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM C. BURNS, 
MISSIONARY TO CHINA. 



Gospel Books and Tracts. 



The Gospel in the Book of Joshua. 

The object of this little volume is to direct the mind to the 
recognized analog-y between the Book of Joshua and the 
Epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians. 

The Characteristic Differences of the Four 

Gospels. By Rev. A. Jukes, London. 

Contents. 
The Four G-ospels. Four Views of Christ. 
St. Matthew, or the Son of Abraham. 
St. Mark, or the Servant of God. 
St. Luke, or the Son of Adam. 
St. John, or the Son of God. 
The Common Testimony. 
Index of Peculiar Texts. 

Memoir of the Lives of Robert Haldane 

and James A. Haldane. 
It is a book which will, in a future age, be considered as 
deserving- a chief place in the biography of the first half of the 
nineteenth century. 

An Exposition of the Epistle to the Ro- 
mans. By RoBEJiT Haldane. 
" The only commentary on the Romans that it does not excel 
is that of Calvin. The reader who wishes completely to mas- 
ter the doctrine of justification, as developed by Paul, we 
strono-ly recommend to study them both." — Edin})urgh Pres- 
byterian Review. 

Jesus and the Coming Glory; 

Or, Notes on Scripture. By Judge Jones, of Phila. 
The aspect of the work is not devotional, nor is it contro- 
versial; nor is it, properly speaking, dogmatical; but it is of 
the nature of a judicial analysis, and the determination of the 
true meaning of a record, the particular portions of which, that 
bear specially upon certain vast topics, have been submitted to a 
most vigorous scrutiny. An original, independent, temperate,, 
and able contribution in aid of every one who is inquiring con- 
cerning the true sense of God's word, touching the great 
promise and the great threat of the New Testament Scriptures. 
REV. R. T. BRECKINRIDGE, D. D. 

Luther's Commentary on Galatians. 
Daily Light on the Daily Path. 

A devotional text-book for every day in the year. 

Bagster & Sons, Loudon, 



Gospel Books and Tracts. 



The Friends of Jesus Directed and En- 
couraged. By Rev. William Reid. 

The Book of Revelation, 

From Ancient Authorfcies, with a !N"otice of a 
Palimpsest MS., hitherto unused. By S. T. Tre- 
GELLES, LL. D. 

The Warrant of Faith. 

A Hand-book to the Canon and Inspiration of the 
Scriptures. 

Eight Lectures on Prophecy. 
The Coming Glory. 
The Return of the Lord Jesus. 
The Eternal Purpose of God. 
Sunbeams for Human Hearts, 

From God's own Word. 

Earth's Expedients and Heaven's Gospel. 

Dedicated to Young Men. By Rev. William Reid. 

The Christian Home, and its Responsi- 
bilities. 

The Old, Old Story. 

From the London Edition, of which half a million copies 
have been sold, besides editions in German, French, Span- 
ish, Italian, Welsh, Irish, and Bengali. 

The Names, Titles, and Characters 

of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Bagster & Sons , London. 

The New Testament. 

The authorized En^^lish Version, with Introduction and 
Various Readings from the three most celebrated manu- 
scripts of the original Greek text. By Constantine 
TiscHENDORF. Tauclmitz Edition, Leipzig. 

The Wew Testament. 

Authorized Version, newly compared with the original 
Greek, and revised by Dean Alford. 

Memoir of the late Rev. A. W. Groves, 

With Preface by Rev. Alexander Duff. 



Gospel Books and Tracts, 



The Heavenly Life. 

Being Select Writings of Adelaide L. Newton. Edited by 
Rev. John Baillie. 

A Visit to the Waldenses by a Kentish 

Vicar. 

The Soldiers of France. 

A Brief Record of the Gospel Labors of an English 
Lady amongst the French Soldiery. 

Manuel Matamoros and his Fellow Prison- 
ers in Spain. 

The Covenant of Life and Peace. 

The Word of Promise. 

A Hand-book to the Promises of Scripture. By Horatius 
BONAE, D. D. 

Anna; or, Passages from the Life of a 

Daughter at Home. 
It is Written ; or, The Scriptures the Word 

of God. From the French of Professor Gaussen. 

The Life, Labors, and Writings of Caesar 

Malan. By one of his Sons. 

The Doom of the Unjust, 

Or The Doctrine of Eternal Punishment considered in its 
relation to the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
With an Appendix, containing a notice of disputed texts. 
By Arthur Pridham. 

The Christian Hero. 

A Sketch of the Life of Robert Annan . By Rev. 

J. Macpherson, Dundee, Scotland. 

*' This is one of the most soul-stirring books we have ever 
read." — Herald of Mercy, 

It is a book to be read by all, but especially adapted to do 
good to the working classes. 

Gosses' Narrative Tracts. 
The C. S. Tracts. 

Admirable for railway use. 

A Narrative of some of the Lord's Dealings 

with George Muller. Written by himself. 



Gospel Books and Tracts. 



WORKS BY ANNA SHIPTON, 

OF ENGLAND. 



Tell Jesus. 

A very sweet and encouraging- little work this must surely 
be found by the tried and tempted followers of Jesus. 

Following Fully; or, Giving up all for 

Christ. 

The Valley of Blessing. 

Details of the conversion and last days of Louisa Mat- 
thews. 

Saved !N"ow ; or, Pardon and Peace. 

A true narrative. 

The Secret of the Lord. 

" Very valuable, and well adapted for a time like the pres- 
ent." 

The Brook in the Way. 

A volume of original Hymns and Poems illustrative of 
the Christian life. 

Whispers in the Palms. 

A volume of Hymns and Poetic Meditations. 
" Charming in style, spiritual in matter, heavenly in tone.'' 
— Sword and Trowel. 

The Child Minister. 

Records of a young life. 



Leaflets for Letters. 

The Heavenly Friend. 

The Loving Cup. 

The Dying Thief. 

"Who is "Willing. 

*' Sow beside all "Wa- 
ters." 

"Without Money and 
without Price. 



The Fourth Watch. 
The First Missionaxiy. 
A very present Help in 

Trouble. 
Home ! Light ! Home ! 
" Wait on the Lord." 
The Lost Cherith. 



Christine; or, Broken Communion. 



10 Gospel Books and Tracts, 

Wayside Service; or, The Day of Small 

Things. 
■ " Full of devout and g^entle earnestness. It is interesting 
from its many proofs of prayers heard and blessings be- 
stowed, but more from its deep piety and the manifest fellow- 
ship of its writer with her God." — Sivord and Trowel, 

The Cottage on the Rock. 

An Allegory. 
" This allegory presents the Christian life in a way pecu- 
liarly interesting to the young." — i2ez;zz;aL 

Precious Gems for the Saviour's Diadem. 

" Kadiant with devoutness and spirituality."— C^Wsiiaw 
World. 

Angel Guest. 
Faith's First Conflict. 

Which Way; or, ''Fetch them in, and tell 

them of Jesus." 



The Gospel according to Moses. 

As seen in the Tabernacle, and its Various 
Services. By Rev. George Kodgeks. 

Pictorial Description of the Tabernacle in 

the "Wilderness, its Rites and Ceremonies ; for the use 
of Sunday School Teachers and other students of Scrip- 
ture. 

The Moral Glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

By J. G. Bellett. 

Ashley Down ; or, Living Faith in a Living 

God. Memorials of the new Orphan Houses on Ashley 
Down, Bristol. By W. Elfe Taylor. 

Passages from the Diary and Letters of 

Hev. Henry Craik, of Bristol. By W. Elfe Taylor, 
with notices of his life and writings, and an introduction 
by Rev. George MUller. 



Gospel Books and Tracts. 



11 



VALUABLE BIBLICAL WORKS 

PUBLISHED BY 

S. BAGSTBR & SONS, 
LONDON. 



The English Hexapla, 

Exhibiting- the six important translations of the New 
Testament Scriptures. Witli the original Greek text after 
Scholz, preceded by a history of English translations and 
translators. 

The Commentary wholly Biblical. 

An Exposition in the very words of Scripture. 

The Bible of Every Land. 

A History of the Sacred Scriptures in every language and 
dialect into which translations have been made; illustra- 
ted by specimen portions in Native Characters, series of 
Alphabets, colored Ethnographical Maps, Tables, In- 
dexes, etc. 

The Large Print Paragraph Bible, 

In separate books. Complete in four volumes; also, in 
twenty-nine small volumes. 

The Historic Evidence 

Of the Authorship and Transmission of the I3"ew 
Testament. By S. P. Trigilles, LL. D. 

An Amended Translation 

Of the Epistle to the Hebrews. By Rev. Henry 
Craik. 



The Two Ways. 

Churches of Scripture and 

their Ministry. 
A Call to the Unconverted, 
lie came to Save Me. 
Sent to the Lord. 
She looked outside Herself. 
Never Perish. 
Taught of the Lord. 
Things as they are, but ought 

not to be. 



Not in my Sins. 

The Scarlet Line. 

Daily Trials, and How to 

Bear Them. 
What is the Gospel ? 
The Riddle Solved. 
Love of God to Sinners. 
The Two Garments. 
Object and Character of all. 

True Service. By Alfred 

Trench. 



12 Gospel Books and Tracts. 


Bright Sunset. 


God must have Realities. 


Jesus has Found Me. 


The Threefold Bondage of 


Christ in the Vessel. 


the Sinner. 


A Word to Young Disciples. 


Book of Martyrs. 


Wheat or Tares. 


Address to Young Christian 


Caleb and Joshua. 


Women. 


Saints' Incomparable Places. 


Mount Moriah and Mount 


Mary of Bethany. 


Calvary. 


Trench on Communion. 


Holy War. 


The Golden Lamp. 


Sin, its Punishment and Rem- 


Faithful liecords. 


edy. 


Joseph Round. 


Banner Unfurled. 


Soul and its DiflSculties. By 


Once to Die. 


Soltan. 


Christian Conduct. 


Present Salvation. 


Daily Light. 


Christ our Strength. 


Why do the Birds Sing ? 


Bristol Orphans' Home. 


Word for a Fallen Sister. 


How to be Happy. 


The Substitute. 


How to be Saved. 


Friend and Traveller. 


How to get Peace. 


No Condemnation, no Sepa- 


How to get Pardon. 


ration. 


How Christ Saves. 


Abiding in Christ. 


How God loves Us. 


What's the Harm ? . 


How to get Rest. 


The Lord's Coming. 


How the Reasonings of an 


Great Truths for Young People. 


Anxious Soul were ended. 


The Commercial. 


A few Words on Outward 


Luther and the Count. 


Adorning. 


Love One Another. 


True Liberty. 


Children of God by Faith in 


True Levite. 


Christ. 


Christian's Home. 


Crucified, Dead, and Risen 


The Resurrection, the funda- 


with Jesus. 


mental truth of .the Gospel. 


Jesus died to light thee Home. 


Blood which Cleanseth. 


Kind Words about Jesus. 


Queen of Sheba. 


.Peter's Fall. 


Wanderer brought to the fold. 


Conversion of Children. 


The Hiding Place, and Room 


Fletcher of Madley. 


in it for you. 


Through Death unto Life. 


Last Ball Dress. 


Annals of the Poor. 


5®^ Also a large varie 


ty of small English Books 


and Tracts suitable for gei 


leral distribution. 






M 



